US Border Patrol Checkpoint — Fiona Apple Arrested (2012)

On September 19, 2012, Fiona Apple's tour bus was stopped at the US Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 10 near Sierra Blanca, Texas — a routine narcotics checkpoint roughly 90 miles east of El Paso that has become notorious for snaring touring musicians. A drug-detection dog alerted to a backpack that was found to contain approximately four grams of cannabis and four grams of hashish. Apple was taken into custody in Hudspeth County, spent a night in jail, and was released the following day on $10,000 bail.

Apple was midway through her Idler Wheel Tour at the time, her first tour in several years, and the arrest generated considerable media attention — though perhaps less because of the charges themselves (possession of small quantities, in a state where cannabis would eventually be legalised) and more because of the extraordinary prepared statement Apple later issued through her publicist. In it she addressed the people of Hudspeth County directly, criticising the conditions of the jail and the treatment of inmates she observed during her brief time there. The statement became as celebrated as any of her music.

The Sierra Blanca checkpoint — known informally as "the checkpoint of no return" — sits on the only major eastward route out of west Texas and has caught a remarkable number of musicians over the years, including Snoop Dogg, Willie Nelson, and Armie Hammer. For Apple, who is famously private and rarely tours, the episode became one of the more unexpected chapters of her public life. The checkpoint continues to operate on I-10, processing thousands of vehicles each day.